DM Glossary
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9-Digit ZIP Code or ZIP+4: Extension of the five-digit ZIP code providing the U.S. Postal Service with even more precise destination information to facilitate mail handling. The nine-digit ZIP is based on a system of grids. The first two digits of the added four digits are a sector; the last two digits are a segment within a sector.
The USPS intends the nine-digit ZIP to be used by business mailers, not by individuals, and offers a small discount for its use. Another benefit provided by the nine-digit ZIP is that it can serve as a basis for demographic and psychographic selections from mailing lists.
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Alternate Delivery: Methods of delivering direct mail or sample products to households without using the United States Postal Service.
Alternate Media: Any means of reaching consumers other than by using solo direct mail and telemarketing including: cooperative mailings, card decks, package inserts and free-standing inserts (FSIs), home-shopping programs, computer online services and broadcast.
Append: The matching of two or more lists that contain the same names or addresses but where one list adds additional data such as demographic or geographic variables to the other. Synonyms: enhancement, data overlay.
Automation-Compatible Mail: Mail that can be scanned and processed by automated mail processing equipment such as a barcode sorter.
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Back End Results: The end results of a mailing which include the final figures of paid and unpaid orders which may show a list thought profitable to be unprofitable and vice versa.
Bar Code: The nine-digit ZIP code translated into a coding structure of vertical bars and half bars used in order to speed the sorting of mail and enabling mailers to take a discount on postage.
Batching: The gathering and organizing of incoming orders.
Block Group: U.S. Bureau of the Census term denoting a cluster of blocks in which 800 to 1000 people reside. Block groups are a subset of census tracts.
Bulk Mail: Mail that is rated for postage partly by weight and partly by the number of pieces in the mailing. The term is generally used to refer to Standard Mail.
Bulk Mail Center (BMC): A highly mechanized mail processing plant that distributes Standard Mail in piece and bulk form.
Business List: A business mailing list consists of mail addresses of businesses and their employees. Such lists are used to sell products and services of interest to businesses.
Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU): The area of a postal facility where mailers present bulk, presorted, and permit mail for acceptance.
Business-to-Business Marketing: Reaching prospects and customers (usually in their workplace) with offers that relate to their profession--as opposed to their lifestyle, hobbies, family.
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Caging: The opening and sorting of orders and the handling of checks and cash. So called, as people work in cages for security purposes.
Call Center: A site that houses a telemarketing operation.
Card Deck: A cooperative pack of postcards, usually mailed in a clear poly outer, that is used in both consumer and business-to-business direct marketing. The postcard, which either orders the product or asks for more information, can be mailed back to the individual advertiser.
Carrier Route Presort Mail: Mail sorted by carrier route to qualify for discount postage rates.
CBSA Code (Core Based Statistical Code): The term "core based statistical area" (CBSA) became effective in 2000 and refers collectively to metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas according to published standards that are applied to Census Bureau data.
Cheshire Label: Specially prepared paper (rolls, fanfold or accordion fold) used to reproduce names and addresses to be mechanically affixed, one at a time to a mailing piece.
Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS): Created by the U.S. Postal Service to ensure the accuracy of software programs used by service bureaus to check addresses and code mailings for delivery.
Compiled List: A list of names and addresses gathered from directories, newspapers, public records, etc. Identifying people or organizations with common characteristics.
Computer Service Bureaus: A company that will maintain lists for list owners. Services may include: updating the list, merge/purge, data overlays and preparing the list for mailing or rentals.
Consolidator: A consolidator accepts mail for deposit within a particular type of delivery service. By grouping together mail from more than one company, consolidators are often able to obtain higher volume discounts than an independent mailer.
Consumer List: Any list of individuals at home addresses Such lists are used to sell products and services directly to individuals and families. See also business mailing list.
Continuation: An order from a mailer who has previously tested or used the list within 12 months and is using it again.
Continuity Program: An offer of a series of products to be received in timely intervals. Most often used for books, tapes/CDs and recipe cards.
Contribution: The amount of money left over to contribute to overhead expenses after deducting for customer returns, cost of goods sold, direct selling expenses and variable order-processing costs.
Co-op Database: A combination of two or more list owners' databases, allowing participants to access each other's names.
Cooperative Advertising (Co-Op): Advertising (including direct mail, inserts, stuffers, card decks) where offers from several different mailers are included and share mailing costs according to a predetermined formula.
Cooperative Broker: A person/company who recommends and takes orders for marketers who want to be part of a cooperative effort.
Cooperative Manager: A person/company who sells space in the co-op for the cooperative owner.
Cooperative Owner: A company that brings different marketers together into a co-op effort. Services may include: printing the individual inserts, combining them and mailing them to pre-selected lists.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM): An acronym for Cost Per Thousand. The list industry calculates list rental costs on a CPM basis. E.g. If a Mailing List is advertised at the price of $125/M then the CPM is $125.
Coupons: A promotional device used by marketers to increase sales or store traffic by offering a discount when the coupon is redeemed.
CPO: Chief Privacy Officer of a corporation.
Cross Section: A group of names and addresses selected from a mailing list in such a way as to be representative of the entire list.
Currency Exchange: A service that changes money from one currency to another.
Custom Publisher: Any publisher who will, for a fee, create a publication for a direct marketer that is most-often used for self-promotion or as a premium.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Providing better communication offers and services to customers by evaluating your previous interactions with them.
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Data Entry: The entering of names, addresses and other information into a data storage and retrieval system. Data can be entered via manual keying, electronic data transfer or by scanning.
Data Overlays: The matching of two or more lists that contain the same names or addresses but where one list adds additional data such as demographics or geographics to the other. Synonyms: enhancement, data overlay.
Data Protection Directive: Legislation regulating the collection and dissemination of personal data. The European Data Protection Directive requires specific measures be met before data are transferred outside the European Union (EU).
Database: A file that is maintained on a computer comprised of pertinent information such as a company's prospects or customers. The file can serve multiple applications and be manipulated for various purposes. The following definitions apply to databases used for direct marketing purposes:
- Database Analysis: Interpreting information within the database in order to gain customer insight and improve marketing efficiency.
- Commercial Database Management: Professional management of large compiled databases for list segmentation and rental.
- Database Modeling: Using statistical techniques in order to predict future customer behavior.
Datacard: List information including counts, demographics, pricing, etc.
Deduping: The process of removing duplicate entries from mailing lists. Deduping results in lower costs because it reduces the amount of postage and marketing collateral needed for direct mail campaigns and the number of email recipients in email marketing campaigns.
Delivery Sequence File (DSF): A computerized file of more than 125 million records containing all the addresses the U.S. Postal Service serves throughout the U.S. Each address record features ZIP+4, carrier route, delivery sequence, delivery type and seasonal delivery information that can help mailers maintain accurate and complete addresses on the lists they own and rent as well as code their mail for walk sequence discounts from the postal service.
Demographics: Social and economic information about human populations including age, gender, income, education, family structure, type of residence, ownership of cars, etc., which pertain to a specific location or geographic unit such as a given ZIP code or county.
Digital Color Proofing: See Pre-Press Services
Direct Entry/Injection: Process of entering mail directly into another country's mail stream. Mail that is sent direct injection goes directly to the designated country's post office and receives a local indicia and return address.
Direct Mail: Using the US Postal Service to deliver your message. Can be used for consumer and for business-to-business offers.
Direct Mail Advertising: Any promotional effort using the Postal Service or other direct delivery service for distribution of the advertising message.
Direct Marketing Association (DMA): The Direct Marketing Association is the leading global trade association of business and nonprofit organizations using and supporting direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the entire direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today has more than 3,600 members from the US and 46 other nations, including the majority of companies listed on the Fortune 100.
Direct Selling Expenses: All of the marketing expenses, including labor, associated with producing, printing and mailing a catalog.
DRTV: Direct Response Television is the liveliest medium in that is can show products actually in use. Unlike brand advertising or general advertising on TV--which is designed to create awareness--DRTV attempts to change behavior by getting people to call a toll-free number or log onto a Web site.
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Enhancement: See Append, Data Overlay.
Exchange: When two mailers agree to share their lists via a trade rather than charging the regular fee.
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Free-Standing Insert (FSI): A promotional piece that is loosely inserted into a newspaper or magazine.
Front End: The returns that come in as a result of a mailing or TV promo, etc. This may be paid or unpaid, but does not determine the end result (See Back End).
Fulfillment: All activities involved in the processing and servicing of mail, FAX and telephone orders.
- Literature Fulfillment refers to the sorting and qualifying of leads, sending the appropriate information, and, if outsourced, forwarding leads to the marketer for follow-up.
- Subscription Fulfillment is a specialized service for periodical publishers. Services include: maintaining the subscriber list, generating invoices and renewals and recording payments.
- Product Fulfillment is the storage and shipping of samples and merchandise.
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Geocoding: The process of appending latitude and longitude coordinates to a database record so it can be properly placed on a geographical map.
Geographics: Any method of subdividing a list, based on geographic subdivisions (ZIP codes, sectional centers, cities, counties, states, regions).
GIF: Abbreviation for Graphics Interchange Format, GIF is a bitmapped electronic graphics file format. GIF supports color and various resolutions. It includes data compression and is limited to 256 colors. Better for scanned images, such as illustrations than for color photos.
GLB: Signed into law in 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act regulates how financial institutions can disclose consumers' personal information to non-affiliated third parties. GLB also requires financial institutions to provide privacy notices to consumers and customers.
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HIPAA: Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, healthcare entities must take specific steps to protect the privacy and personally identifiable information of their patients, including names and diagnoses. The Act is enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights.
Hotline: The most recent names available on a specific list. The term "hotline" should be further modified by "weekly" or "monthly."
Housefile or Houselist: Commonly referred to as a "customer list," a housefile is a consolidated database containing each customer's name, address and summarized order information.
HTML: Abbreviation for Hyper Text Markup Language, which is the language used for creating documents on the World Wide Web.
Hyperlink: An element in an electronic document, when clicked on, links to another place in the same document, or to an entirely different document.
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Image Manipulation: See Pre-Press Services.
Imagesetter: See Pre-Press Services.
Indicia: Imprinted designation on mail that denotes postage payment (e.g., permit imprint).
Ink Jet Printing: Superheated dots of ink are sprayed from an ink reservoir on the printhead to form full characters.
Interactive Voice Response: See Telemarketing.
International Priority Airmail (IPA): A volume, lower-cost First-Class Airmail service provided by the U.S. Postal Service.
International Surface Airlift (ISAL): A bulk service from the U.S. Postal Service for printed matter and small packets. Mail sent by ISAL travels from the United States to the destination country by air. It is then entered into the domestic postal stream of that country, from which it travels by surface to its final destination.
Internet: A global network connecting more than 100 countries and millions of computers.
ISP: Abbreviation for Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the World Wide Web.
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JPEG, or JPG: Abbreviation for Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEG is a "lossy compression" technique used for electronic color images.
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Key Code: A keycode is a sequence of letters, numbers, or both, that appears on a response device (such as a magazine response card or a catalog order form) to identify the campaign and the direct mail list used for the mailing. The code SP06AU4, for instance, might indicate the second spring 2006 mailing to a particular list of car (auto) owners. Using keycodes, a marketer can measure and compare responses to specific mailings and lists. Keycoding is an essential tool for testing and evaluation of direct mail campaigns.
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Labels: Paper printed with a name and address that is affixed to a mailing piece and serves as the mailing address vehicle. Different types of labels include: peel-off or pressure-sensitive labels, gummed labels and paper (or Cheshire) labels.
Laser Printing: Similar to a photocopy machine, the laser printer uses a laser beam, toner and fuser to "etch" the image onto a photoelectric drum.
Lettershop: A company that will assemble and insert the various printed elements of a direct mail piece, label, sort, tag and deliver the mailings to the post office for mailing. The lettershop will provide the mailer with written proof of delivery to the U.S. Postal Service.
List Broker: A list specialist hired by a mailer to make the necessary arrangements to use other companies' lists. Brokerage services usually include: research, list selections, recommendations and logistics so that the rented lists arrive at the proper time. The standard commission to a list broker is 20 percent.
List Cleaning: The process of updating a list in order to remove any undeliverable addresses. Other cleaning activities could include removing duplicates, bad debts, names on the DMA Mail Preference Service, prison ZIPs, etc.
List Maintenance: The ongoing process of keeping a mailing list up-to-date by adding, editing and deleting data.
List Manager: Whereas a list broker works for a mailer, the list manager works for the list owner. The primary function is to promote the list to mailers and list brokers for list rental. List managers can be either an internal employee of the list owner, or part of an outside list management company paid a commission by the list owner. Management services usually include: marketing of the list, coordinating and controlling rental activity and accounting. The standard commission for a list manager is 10 percent.
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Magnetic Tape: A storage device for electronically recording and reproducing (by use of a computer) defined bits of data.
Mail Monitoring: Mailers track their mail in order to verify content within the direct mail package and to determine the length of delivery time.
Mail Preference Service (DMA MPS): The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) offers a service for individuals who want their names removed from mailings lists so they will stop receiving direct mail.
Measured Response: The results obtained by tracking a given sales campaign by the number of individuals who responded to it.
Media: Any form of communication that reaches the general public and carries advertising. Direct response media would include: space advertising, direct mail, TV, radio, take-ones, card decks, package inserts, cooperative efforts, on-line shopping services.
Merge-Purge: The process of combining two or more lists into one while, at the same time, identifying and removing any duplicates.
Multi-Channel Marketing: The act of reaching the same prospects with a similar or related message through a combination of two or more direct marketing methods including email, telemarketing or postal direct mail.
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NAICS codes: The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) has replaced the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America. See also: NAICS (from the U.S. Census Bureau)
National Change of Address (NCOA): A service provided by the U.S. Postal Service, through licensed computer service bureaus, that enables mailers to make any necessary address corrections prior to their mailing being dropped. The mailer provides a magnetic tape that is run against the national change of address bank and then is returned to the mailer with all the corrections made.
Net Name Arrangement: A Net Name Arrangement is typically reserved for large mailers. It is an agreement between the List Manager and the end user or List Broker that establishes a minimum payment that is less than 100%. The purpose of a Net Name Arrangement is to provide a discount to the client to offset a percentage of data records that they historically drop during normal Merge Purge operations (current customers, duplicates, etc).
Net Names: The number of names remaining after a merge-purge eliminates all duplicates.
Network: Two or more computer systems that are linked together.
Nixies: Pieces of mail returned as "undeliverable as addressed"
Nth Name: A selection for a list test mailing where names are selected on the basis of the size of the test sample in relation to the size of the list.
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Offset Printing: Using a metal or paper plate, ink is first transferred to an off-set drum and then passed to the paper.
Opt-In: E-mails that have been requested by the recipient.
Opt-Out: The option that allows the recipient to be removed from receiving future e-mails from the sender.
Outsourcing: Using an outside service rather than performing the work in-house.
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P3P: Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is a software tool that turns e-marketers' privacy policies into machine-readable formats. The tool is designed to help consumers better protect their online privacy.
Package Inserts: Any promotional offer included with the shipment of a customer's order. Offers may be from the same mailer shipping the product or other vendors who pay to be included.
Personalization: Using/printing personal information, such as a first or last name, in a direct mail campaign. See Variable Imaging.
Phone Append: A phone append is the process of adding phone numbers to an existing mailing list.
PII: Abbreviation for Personally Identifiable Information.
PLANET Code: A bar code that will allow mailers to track a mail piece, or an entire mail campaign, throughout the U.S.P.S. delivery system.
Poly Bag: An outside mailing envelope made of polyethylene instead of paper.
Pop-Unders: A window that appears under the browser window.
Pop-Ups: A window that pops-up over the browser window.
Postage-Paid Reply Service: A service allowing mailers to use a lettershop's postage-paid permit and have the business-reply mail sent there instead of opening their own account with the USPS.
Predictive Dialing: The automatic dialing by a computer of telephone numbers on a pre-selected list. The system can, with great accuracy, discern an answering machine from a human voice and will instantly connect a respondent to a TSR. If there is no answer or a busy signal, the computer will know to redial later.
Premium: A free gift offered to a prospect to induce a greater response to the main product or service that is being sold. A premium need not bear any relationship to the product being offered.
Pre-Press Services: The various steps necessary, up to final printing, to transform original copy and art into the form required for printing. Services include:
- Color Proofing: Proofs made from the separate plates in color process work, showing the sequence of printing and the result after each additional color has been applied.
- Digital Color Proofing: An off-press color proof produced from digital data without the need for separation films.
- Image Manipulation: Custom alterations of digital images.
- Imagesetter: A typesetting system that can process both text and images.
- Scanner: A device that interprets the reflected light from a physical image and digitizes it so it can be stored on a computer. Using a scanner can eliminate the need for human contact with individual documents.
- Scanning, Desktop, High-end, Mid-range: Electronic process used to make color and tone-corrected separations of images.
- Thermal Dye Sublimation: Proof-making process where pigments are vaporized and float to desired proofing stock.
Presorted Mail: A form of mail preparation, required to bypass certain postal operations, in which the mailer groups pieces in a mailing by ZIP Code or by carrier route or carrier walk sequence (or other USPS-recommended separation).
Pressure Sensitive Label: A self-adhesive label that can be peeled off a sheet and placed on a direct mail piece for addressing.
Prospect: A potential buyer for a product or service who has yet to make a purchase.
Psychographics: The qualities or characteristics of individuals which indicate lifestyle, purchasing habits, attitudes and personal values.
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Remail: The process of preparing mail for deposit in the postal system of another country for delivery to its final destination. With A-B-C remail, mail travels as cargo from "Country A" to "Country B" where it enters the postal stream for delivery in "Country C."
Response Booster: Any device, token, premium or sweepstakes that will help raise the response rate.
Response List: Any list of individuals who have responded to a mailing/offer.
Response Rate: Amount of response received as a percentage of total promotions mailed.
RFM (Recency, Frequency and Monetary value): A methodology used by marketers to determine appropriate circulation strategies.
Running Charge: The price a list owner charges for names run or passed, but not used by a specific mailer. When such a charge is made, it is usually to cover extra processing costs.
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Safe Harbor: An agreement negotiated by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission that enables a U.S. company to receive data from Europe by voluntarily submitting to regulation by a U.S. government office.
Scanning: See Pre-Press Services.
Sectional Center Facility (SCF): A postal facility that serves as the processing and distribution center (P&DC) for post offices in a designated geographic area as defined by the first three digits of the ZIP Codes of those offices. Some SCFs serve more than one 3-digit ZIP Code range.
Seeding: False or "dummy" names are added to a mailing list as a way to check delivery and to uncover any unauthorized list usage.
Selection Criteria: Refers to the geographic, demographic, and psychographic variables that identify a mailing or telemarketing list.
Selective Binding: The process which allows an advertisement to be inserted into only certain select issues of a magazine, or allows selected pages to be inserted in a catalog.
Self-Mailer: A type of direct mail piece that is totally self-contained, such as a double or triple panel postcard folded over itself.
Service Bureaus: See Computer Service Bureaus.
Sheet-Fed Press: An offset printer that prints on paper which is fed one sheet at a time. Used primarily for short runs or higher-quality printing.
Shopping Cart: Software that allows the user to hold merchandise selected for purchase until shopping is complete and the user is ready to check out.
SIC Code: An SIC Code is a number used to specify what industry a particular company belongs to. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code system was replaced by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in 1997.
Additional resources:
SIC Codes (from the SEC)
NAICS (from the U.S. Census Bureau)
Single-Piece Rate: The "undiscounted" or "full" postage rate available for individual pieces of Express Mail, First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Package Services.
Soft Bounce: An e-mail that has bounced back to the sender undelivered after it was already accepted by the recipient's mail.
Sorting: The computerized process of reorganizing a list from one sequence to another. For example, a file can be sorted by last name, company name, ZIP code, high donors, multi-buyers, recent buyers, etc.
Source Codes: An identifier that goes with a particular housefile segment or list. The code must be unique to the particular segment and/or list being coded, so marketing and circulation efforts can be measured.
Spam: Unsolicited e-mail advertising.
Standard Mail: Formerly known as "Third Class" or "Bulk" mail.
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Take-Ones: Promotional literature found in racks, often at the grocery store.
Tape Dump: A printout of data from a tape used to check for things like correctness and reliability.
Targeted Marketing: Identifying, locating and contacting one or more groups of prime prospects for your product or service.
Telemarketing: Soliciting sales or leads by telephone.
- Inbound: Any phone calls that come into a telemarketing call center.
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR): The various recorded or digitized text messages that can be accessed electronically by using a telephone.
- Outbound: Any phone calls made out of a telemarketing call center.
- Telephone Service Representative (TSR): Anyone who sells, or services customers over the phone either inbound or outbound.
- Telephone Preference Service (DMA TPS): A service of the Direct Marketing Association for consumers who want to have their names removed from telemarketing lists.
Terminal Dues: The payments between countries to compensate for imbalance in sending/receiving international mail.
Test: An order that is placed for a small quantity of names to see how the list performs. If it performs well, a continuation order for more names is usually placed.
Tokens: An action device; the purpose of which is to involve the prospect in the offer. It can be anything from a coin, peel-off stamp or a punch-out paper piece that is inserted into the order form.
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Universe Count: The total count (number of names) on a list.
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Variable Imaging: Personalization done on a digital press.
Voice Response Unit (VRU): Hardware that is connected to the telephone through which Interactive Voice Response messages are generated.
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Web Browser: The software used for searching the World Wide Web.
Web Bugs: Software that can be introduced into an e-mail and transmit a Web-log entry and associated cookie when the e-mail is opened. This enables tracking of the e-mail. Cookie-filtering software does not stop Web bugs from tracking the recipient's online activity.
Web Press: A printing press that is fed by a large roll of paper instead of individual sheets.
World Wide Web: A system of Internet servers comprised of HTML documents and graphics that can link to one another. Not all Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.
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ZIP+4 or 9-Digit ZIP Code: See 9-Digit ZIP Code
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